


newfound, strange - family.

by evenstar9



Series: maybe the real family is the spren we bonded along the way [1]
Category: Cosmere - Brandon Sanderson, Stormlight Archive - Brandon Sanderson
Genre: Book 03: Oathbringer, Book 03: Oathbringer Spoilers, Gen, Shadesmar (Stormlight Archive), and kal is Not Pleased about it, set when they're on the honorspren's boat while syl is still locked up
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-26
Updated: 2020-06-26
Packaged: 2021-03-03 22:13:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,305
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24932827
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/evenstar9/pseuds/evenstar9
Summary: Syl has been imprisoned by the honorspren, and Kaladin sees an opportunity to pay her back for all the times when she has stuck beside him.-a quick scene between our fave windrunner and his longsuffering honorspren
Relationships: Kaladin & Sylphrena (Stormlight Archive)
Series: maybe the real family is the spren we bonded along the way [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1804468
Comments: 5
Kudos: 34





	newfound, strange - family.

**Author's Note:**

> Family, strange, in newfound connection. Connection found new, in strange family.

Despite the fact that in her humanish form she was now as tall as he was, Kaladin was still struck by just how small Syl looked sitting in her cell. He had just, finally, been allowed out of the confinement the honorspren had kept their passengers in, and while the others had immediately gone above deck to get air, he hurried to Syl’s side in a different section of the brig. His annoyance that they had been locked up separately knew no bounds. He’d argue with the spren as soon as he went up to join everyone else, but for now he couldn’t bring himself to move.

Sylphrena sat huddled against the far wall of the cell, arms around her knees in a pose that might have looked relaxed was her expression not so anxious. She hadn’t looked up to meet his eye immediately, and he forced down his anger at her imprisonment. She needed comfort and companionship, not his bitterness. Almighty knows, he thought, she gets enough of that the rest of the time.

He settled onto his knees outside the bars. They had refused to let him inside. The walls of the cell were solid, so she had been hidden from view when he and his friends had been locked further down the hallway. He’d tried to call to her during their time separated, but had gotten only scarce responses. Now that he was near her again, he hoped that would change. Syl was a force of light and energy, always cheerful, excited, even mischievous. To see her solemn or worried was disturbing under normal circumstances, and he had never seen her as forlorn as she was now before him.

“Syl?” he asked softly, disciplining his tone so it didn’t sound as angry as he felt.

She shifted but didn’t look up.

“Syl! Please,” he repeated. She looked up at him slowly, eyes worryingly vacant for a moment before she seemed to focus on him. He didn’t need to see her to know how upset she was, though - he could feel her misery seeping through their bond. 

“Tell me what’s wrong, Syl. Please.”

She furrowed her brow, uncurling a bit from the wall. “What’s wrong? I’ve been locked away, Kaladin,” she explained. She suddenly grew more animated. “You hate being locked up. Imagine how I feel! I’m a spren. I should be free! Like my cousins who ride the winds, or – or them!” She waved a pale hand in a vague gesture around her, and he assumed she meant the others of her kind who crewed the ship. Still, he breathed a sigh. Even if it was negative, he was relieved to see emotion from her at last.

“You’re starting to sound like me. I know how you feel, Syl, I haven’t felt fresh air in weeks. It feels like a part of me is dead when I’m caged like that.”

She nodded emphatically, then looked at the far wall. They were silent for a moment, and he sensed it wasn’t just their mutual hatred of confinement that was troubling her.

“You’ve seemed... different, Syl. Ever since we arrived in Shadesmar,” he observed.

“Of course spren are different here, silly. This is where we come from.” She took on a bit of her usual condescending tone, and he almost smiled.

“Aren’t you happy to be home?”

Syl’s face grew sad again. If she were human, she looked like she might be crying. 

Do spren cry?

“Look around, Kaladin. Of course I’m not happy to be home. I don’t really belong here, and they all know it.”

He opened his mouth to say something, but then fell silent. What did he know about life as a spren? As a force of nature, of divinity itself? He had power running through his veins as a Knight Radiant, but he was still only human.

“My real home is with you,” Syl added softly. “I don’t think- I don’t think I knew that.” She looked up with a sudden smile. “You’re my home, Kaladin. Isn’t that nice?”

He did manage a smile in return, this time.

“I guess it’s kind of like when I went back to Hearthstone,” he said slowly. “I thought I was going home, but it’s really just a place I used to live. Now my home is with Dalinar, and Adolin and Shallan in Urithiru. I’m different now. I didn’t know until I went back, either.”

She seemed to be considering this. “Is your home with me, too?” she asked hopefully.

He put a hand on the bars. “Yes, of course it is!” he hurried to reassure her. “I have you to thank for all the rest of it, after all.”

She nodded, self-satisfied, at that.

After a pause, he felt his frustration return. “I hate the honorspren for taking you away from me,” he noted bitterly. He had already almost lost Syl once to his own stupidity. It didn’t seem fair for her past to catch up with her, now that their bond seemed secure again.

Syl shook her head, looking small once more. “Please don’t hate them, Kal. They’re just doing what they think is right.”

He stood up, a sudden burst of energy driving him to pace outside her cell. “How can I not be angry, when they’ve kept you shut away like this? I’ll make them listen to reason, I swear it, Syl. I’ll get you out.”

She shrank back from his outburst. 

“I’ll be ok,” she tried. “It was my idea to get caught in the first place, and it was very clever of me.”

He looked up absently. “That’s no excuse for this. I don’t care what you did. The Stormfather himself accepted your bond with me!”

She stared at her knees, hugging them closer. “They’re just doing what they think is right,” she repeated softly, and he stopped. It suddenly sounded as if she was trying to convince herself.

“Syl, don’t let them get to you,” he said, trying to be gentler. “I’ll do everything I can. And in the meantime, I’ll tell the others to come down and visit you when they have a chance. Maybe you could use some company?”

“I think... I think I’d rather be alone,” Syl replied quietly. “I want to think about my homes. With you and with my own people here.”

He looked at her, concerned, but she seemed more pensive than upset now.

“I’ll be thinking of you, too,” he said. “I don’t care if you’re a spren, Syl. You’re my friend. You’re – you’re like family to me now.”

She met his eyes, blue-white gaze warm.

“I think I’ll be ok, then. If we’re family.” She said the word slowly, as if savoring it. “If you’re my family, I’m not quite alone, am I?”

He thought of Tien, and the way he used to banish Kal’s loneliness with a few words. He thought of Shallan, whose light smile gave him hope that maybe he could laugh like her someday. He even thought of Adolin, who patted him on the back and mocked him with a real affection in his eyes, as if they were friends. He’d looked like that even before Kal was technically a lighteyes, like the difference didn’t matter at all.

“That’s right,” he answered aloud. “You’re not alone, and neither am I.”

She sat up straighter, with an ‘I told you so’ air. “That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you all along, silly!”

He smiled again. “Well, I think sometimes you might need to hear it too.”

He looked at the bars dividing them, and his warm mood dissipated once more. “Now, I’m going to go argue with some honorspren.” As he headed towards the steps above deck, he pretended he didn’t hear Syl muttering about how much practice he had doing just that.


End file.
